The Police yesterday confirmed 18 people were killed after a trio of suicide bombers detonated their bombs at a crowded fish market at Konduga on the outskirt of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
Twenty-two others were wounded, according to Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu.
The bombers were all believed to be female.
He explained that the injured persons were referred to the Specialist Hospital, Maiduguri.
The commissioner said normalcy has, however, been restored to the area.
An eyewitness, Musa Bulama, 32, said he was lucky to have survived the blasts.
Bulama had gone to the night market to buy fish for dinner when “I heard a loud bang some meters behind me and I saw myself on the ground and before I could pick up myself another one went off, then the third one.”
He added: “I couldn’t stand any longer and just laid down but everywhere was in total confusion.
”From the wailings, one can tell that there are many casualties.”
Another witness, Idrissa Bana, told NAN that the three suicide bombers simultaneously detonated the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) on their bodies in the crowded market.
Bana said that the explosives killed 22 persons and 28 others sustained injuries, adding that those injured were evacuated to a hospital in Maiduguri.
“There were a lot of people doing last minute shopping when the suicide bombers hit the market,” he said.
The National Emergency Management Emergency (NEMA) zonal coordinator, Bashir Garza, put the death toll at 17 and 51 injured.
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